Integrating Culture in Teaching English: Developing Teaching Materials

Adam Indrawan

4 min read

Language and culture are deeply intertwined. Without language, the expression of culture becomes nearly impossible. Although not all aspects of culture rely on language, the majority use it as a medium to convey cultural values and practices. This is why teaching English requires embedding culture into learning materials.

Culture equips students with the skills to communicate effectively. It also provides them with rich information about diverse cultural knowledge, which helps develop their critical thinking abilities. With critical thinking, students are expected to become more aware of diversity and foster tolerance toward people from different cultural backgrounds.

This article discusses the importance of integrating cultural elements into English teaching. It explores the sources of culture and examines the cultural aspects derived from these sources.

Why Integrate Culture into English Teaching Materials?

The relationship between language and culture has drawn significant attention in the development of English teaching materials. Culture is closely connected to language. As Bennett et al. (2003) stated, “The person who learns a language without learning culture risks becoming a fluent fool.”Regardless of the language being taught, culture and language are always “holding hands,” forming an essential component of the learning process.

In learning materials, acquiring a second or foreign language involves two key aspects: internal and external. The internal aspect pertains to the structure of the language itself, such as grammar, phonology, and morphology. Meanwhile, the external aspect is tied to the social patterns and behaviors of language users.

From a sociocultural perspective, one indication of English mastery is the ability to recognize how language is used appropriately in specific contexts. Beyond mastering the four basic language skills, understanding the perceptions and behaviors of particular linguistic communities is equally important. By grasping the sociocultural context, students can apply their language skills appropriately. Consequently, learning materials should emphasize how language mediates knowledge, which is then reconstructed through social interactions.

Lantolf (2000) argues that when students immerse themselves in social interactions, their cognitive functions activate to build knowledge about the foreign or second language. This aligns with Bernstein’s theory (1999), which posits that the core of the English learning process stems from natural discourse in real-life situations through diverse learning material settings. Bernstein believes that successful English teaching relies on discourse that resonates with students’ real-life experiences.

Where Should Cultural Items Be Taken?

As an international language, in the context of teaching English, it can be said that English is no longer identified with a particular national group. Nowadays, we can hear many people from non-English native speaker countries speaking English as their second or even first language. Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore are precise examples. Their citizens use English in their daily activities as a second language. In fact, English has become an official language in ASEAN, where none of the members are labeled as English-speaking countries. So, from where should cultural items in English materials be taken?

The distribution of cultural items no longer comes solely from English native-speaking countries. McKay (2002) offers three cultural domains for English cultural resources: source culture, target culture, and international culture.

Source culture refers to content from the students’ own culture, meaning the cultural information should be transferred from Indonesia. The second is target culture, which comes from countries where English is used as the first language. America, Britain, and Australia are categorized within this domain. The last domain is international culture, which promotes cultures from various countries beyond Indonesia and English-speaking countries.

The main goal of these cultural sources is to create a context of intercultural awareness for students: equipping them with proper skills to interact with people from different backgrounds and helping them adjust to different societies. Even though there is no fixed percentage of local culture, native-English-speaking countries’ culture, and international culture that should be presented, English learners should at least gain cultural aspects from all these domains.

However, source culture and international cultural content need to receive more attention than target culture. According to Coulmas (2005), people tend to learn English not for understanding English-speaking countries, their literature, or related aspects. They learn English for three main reasons: acquiring information, educational purposes, and economic advancement. Coulmas’s idea connects with Bernstein’s concept of knowledge (1999), which states that English learners can acquire materials more easily when the discourse of the materials starts with topics that are close to their real society or life.

Drawing from the theories of McKay (2002), Coulmas (2005), and Bernstein (1999), teaching English should begin with students’ real society. Therefore, in designing English teaching materials, source culture should have the largest emphasis, followed by international culture, with the smallest proportion given to target culture.

Cultural Aspects in Teaching English

Once we have decided on the composition of source culture, we need to think about the aspects of culture that should be presented. Yuen (2011) identifies four cultural aspects that reflect the status of English as an international language. These aspects are cultural products, cultural practices, cultural perspectives, and familiar persons as an additional aspect.

Cultural products are related to “objective culture,” which includes institutions, artifacts, and everyday behaviors. Cultural perspectives, on the other hand, are related to “subjective culture,” such as the worldview maintained by members of a group or society, as well as their values and beliefs. Cultural practices deal with the way of life in a particular group of people that its members regard as necessary and appropriate, such as housing, clothing, transportation, etc. The final aspect is familiar persons, who serve as symbols of well-known figures. For example, B.J. Habibie represents Indonesia’s greatest success story in the aerospace industry.

Overall, the target of integrating cultural aspects is to ensure that students acquire authentic materials within specific communicative contexts, which can enhance their understanding of various values, norms, knowledge, and more. Therefore, cultural practices and perspectives that are close to the learners’ real lives should receive more attention than the other aspects.

Conclusion

Without culture, English learning materials are unauthentic. The combination of cultural domains and four aspects of culture discussed in previous studies can be mayor or optional reference to design English learning materials. The composition is better if you begin from the domain of source culture, then go on to the domain of international culture and target culture as the last. To give authentic learning materials, the presented cultural aspects should give more space for cultural practices and cultural perspectives than others.

References

Bennett, J. M., Bennett, M. J. & Allen, W. (2003). Developing intercultural competence in the language classroom. In D. L. Lange and M. Paige (Eds.), Culture as the core (pp. 237-270). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Bernstein, B. (1999). Vertical and horizontal discourse: An essay. In British Journal of Sociology of Education (Vol. 20, Issue 2). https://doi.org/10.1080/01425699995380

Coulmas, F. (2005). Sociolinguistics: The study of speakers’ choices. In Sociolinguistics: The Study of Speakers’ Choices. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511815522

Lantolf, J. P., Thorne, S. L., & Poehner, M. E. (2000). Sociocultural theory and second language development. In Theories in Second Language Acquisition: An Introduction. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203628942-16

McKay, S. (2003). Teaching English as an International Language: The Chilean context. ELT Journal, 57(2). https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/57.2.139

Yuen, K. M. (2011). The representation of foreign cultures in english textbooks. ELT Journal, 65(4). https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccq089

Adam Indrawan

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